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At last Arsenal now have a “Plan B”

Arsenal’s new £17 million striker may have taken a few games to settle into things at the club, but after grabbing his first goals for the Arsenal against Nottingham Forest, Lucas Perez is looking confident. There had been some doubts that Arsene Wenger believed the new striker wasn’t quite ready for the new style of play and physicality of the game in England, however Lucas’ solo run that ended in a goal proved to many that he definitely offers Arsenal something new when driving forward with the ball.

Arsenal’s former man Alan Smith, a striker himself in his day, thinks that Lucas offers Arsenal a new game plan, after the Gunners have seemed to have no plan B for quite a while. Smith told Sky Sports: “It was good to see him do well and it was good to see him causing damage through the middle. On his debut he was drifting into the harmless areas but that might have been a confidence thing. The goals will certainly boost his morale. [Alexis] Sanchez has been playing as a false nine, so Perez definitely gives them another option.

“He’s a strong boy, you saw that with the solo goal he scored. He won’t get bullied and he’s got a bit of pace about him. It’s a contrast to what they had already and that’s what they needed. He might be a late developer but he’s a good option for Arsene Wenger.”

Arsenal fans have been frustrated for many years by the lack of diverse attacking options amongst the squad. For so many of the last seasons we have seen just the one solo striker in Olivier Giroud and if he isn’t cutting it in matches, then Arsenal often have no PLAN B to resort to. Now Arsenal have Giroud, who can play against the stronger, taller defenders, although Lucas also proved with his solo goal that he has plenty of strength and fight in his determination to score. Lucas on the other hand can be used against the defenders with more pace, as he is far more mobile than Giroud both on and off the ball.

It may have taken a few matches for Lucas to get into his stride and score his first goals for the Gunners, but now that he has those goals I’m feeling fairly confident that he will be pushing on in confidence to get more over the next few weeks. As Alan Smith recognises, Lucas has the ability to drift in and out amongst the defenders and the Spaniard’s flexibility to also play on the wing, means that he has a very good idea about what kind of runs the wingers will want the striker to make. Arsenal’s style of play has often been to cross the ball into Giroud, as that is where his biggest strengths lie, but with Lucas Perez, the feeders of the ball can finally attempt a variation of passes in order to get our newest face in front of goal.

Another positive is that it seems we have found another competent penalty taker, for when Cazorla is unavailable. We can’t keep Alexis and Walcott on pens Arsene!

For ages now I have wanted Alexis to be our penno taker. I think if he did get the responsibility he would become lethal at it. I know Cazorla is good with pennos, so was Arteta, and if it’s not broke and all that. It’s just that Alexis has the capability to be our 20+ player, these pennos will help, with his numbers going up along with the confidence. We want him to sign, lets give him more responsibility, I’d even consider captain armband if it helped, it’s not like Per is gonna miss it. I believe a teams penno taker should be his best striker/forward.

While it be premature, I for one have reasonable expectations from Arsenal this season. The previous few seasons, we all knew we were short of some signings.
While the signings this year might not be the ‘mega’ signings some of us were hoping for, there is the feeling that if everyone in the team performs to their abilities, we could make significant progress this year – maybe a trophy or even two.
Looking forward to this season! Good luck all !

I think Lucas and Giroud are part of plan A
We don’t have a Ibra, Aguero or Costa, so Lucas, Giroud.
need to all contribute goals.
If Giroud gets on a non-scoring run, then Lucas needs to score and vice versa
Theo, Iwobi, Ox need to compete against each other and contribute
We can’t always depend on Alexis to save us. He is my favourite player and WC but he isn’t Henry who could score 25-30 goals.

I’ve been loving our luck lately, it’s been some time since I’ve seen any luck going to us. Five pennos, one of them we would never have gotten with a different ref, maybe more. We have almost a fit squad, we’re able to introduce players slowly, which means when we get to the final stages of the season, we may have a good number of fit players. Really hope our luck holds, Reading in the next round, luck in the draws, CL draw was kind to us also. Long may it continue. We are beginning to look good, some nice football, and strong defending, we are going to get so much better, but we’ll still need some luck at times, picking up points when we don’t deserve it. When you have experienced players it makes it easier to get those points, sort of making your own luck. We’ve even been a bit more clinical in front of goal, and a little less careless at the back, or more careful. I think a few other fan bases will have noticed a difference in the Arsenal, we look more mature, fans are more positive, and we are only warming up.